windows live writer – Daleisphere

May 16, 2009February 28, 2017

How to Change Number of Items Showing in Windows 7 Jump Lists

With Windows 7 RC1, Microsoft limited the number of Jump List items showing above taskbar icons to 10. (click image for larger view). In the beta there was no such limit.

I gather that more than 10 was confusing for some. For me large jump lists are very useful– especially for programs that do not make it easy to find and open recent files.

One such program is Windows Live Writer – the program I use to write blog posts. It remembers only the three most recent posts. However, I frequently tweak and retweak recent posts until I get it just right. The more prior posts showing up in the Jump List the easier it is to access and edit those posts.

To change the default number of items in the jump List that Windows 7 makes available:

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June 21, 2008February 28, 2017

Windows Live Writer Cropping and Watermarking Tool

Following my recent post about the Windows Live Writer (WLW) technical preview, the WLW team has responded to several of my concerns in this thread on the Windows Live Writer (Beta) forum.

Two of my concerns related to how the WLW cropping tool works and how the the watermarking functionality works. This post demonstrates what I want/need out of a cropping/watermarking tool compared what the cropping/watermarking functionality in the latest WLW tech preview build provides.

The three pictures below show the differences between the source picture, what I want/need, and what the WLW Cropping tool gives me.

1. Source Picture	2. What I Want	3. WLW Cropping Tool

This picture is used in my So You Think You Can Dance (Season 4 – Top 20) post.

1. Source Picture

The source picture was taken with my Canon Powershot SD 1000 camera from my Dell W2200HD Plasma TV. The larger image (click on left thumbnail above to view the source) is 2592 x 1944 pixels and 1.8 MB in size– way too large for a blog.

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June 19, 2008February 28, 2017

Windows Live Writer Technical Preview – 1 Step Forward, 1 Step Back

I’ve been using Windows Live Writer (WLW) since early April 2008 (see post here). For the most part I’ve been delighted with it.

[June 26 2008 Update: I de-installed the technical preview and reverted back to the older WLW release. The “Open Blog Posts Much Slower” WordPress bug was driving me to distraction.]

A new (unnumbered?) WLW ‘technical preview” version came out recently (download here – see details here). I downloaded it and have been using it for a couple days. Unfortunately, this version has solved a few problems and introduced new one’s. I describe the benefits and problems below along with my wishlist for a few new functions.

New Technical Preview Benefits

Refresh Theme Option is Faster: This is not exactly something I need to do often but when I use the View/Refresh Theme function, it is faster than before and it doesn’t stop to ask me the annoying question (can it make a temporary post?) that it used to ask.

Structured HTML Formatting: When you look at the HTML source code WLW ads structures to it. This is terrific. It makes it much easier to find my way around and edit the underlying code. Note: There is also a handy new ‘Source’ access tab along the bottom.

Other: There are new image border styles, but so far I haven’t used them. There is a built in word counter (you need to turn it on in the options – more details are here).

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April 5, 2008February 28, 2017

I Switched to Windows Live Writer

For months now, I have been hearing good things about the offline blogging tool Windows Live Writer (download). Two weeks ago I was listening to Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott‘s most recent Windows Weekly podcast (No. 53) were they once again were singing its praises. Since ‘The Daleisphere‘ just set sail, I decided to give it a whirl with my new blog.

After two weeks, I’m sold! Compared to the WordPress editor, this is one fantastic piece of kit.

In this post I describe some of the key benefits that convinced me to switch, include links to online demos, describe the WLW add-ins I’ve found useful so far and list some areas that need improvement.

The Good:

Untethered Blogging: WLW has untethered me from the net. Previously I had used the WordPress editor and/or the WYSI plugin-editor exclusively. This meant I needed to be online to write posts. Now I can write my from anywhere, on any computer, at any time, whether online or off. So far I’ve written most of my Daleisphere posts on a lazy-boy recliner in front of the TV! 🙂

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